18.01.2021 

”Based on the experience of the projects implemented in Bucharest, Oradea, Sibiu or Timisoara, we have issued this guidebook to support public administration authorities - especially local authorities - in the efficient application of the Infrastructure Law, for the benefit of all users. Therefore, we have developed a set of detailed guidelines and recommendations meant to facilitate the approval of the access conditions for underground duct projects for the installation of public electronic communications networks or of dark fibre, and carried out with the participation, support or funding of public administration authorities. Thus, ANCOM takes one further step aimed at simplifying and speeding up the process of deploying underground communications networks. Communications services are the lifeblood of any modern society, of any community, so they must roll out based on healthy rules and principles ", said Eduard LOVIN, ANCOM vice-president. ANCOM’s guidebook is available, in Romanian, here.

ANCOM’s Guidebook

The document published by ANCOM is a useful tool for the authorities intending to develop underground duct projects, as it provides important data for an adequate sizing of the underground physical infrastructure, as well as information to be taken into account in defining the technical and economic conditions for access, which are to be submitted to the Authority’s approval. Thus, the Guidebook offers the applicants recommendations for drawing up the documentation that is subject to ANCOM’s approval, including the following categories of documents:

a)    the request for approval of the technical and economic conditions for access provided by Law no. 159/2016 on the regime of the physical infrastructure of electronic communications networks;

b)    the documents providing the draft technical and economic conditions for access;

c)    the documentation substantiating the infrastructure project.

For example, ANCOM recommends to the central and local public administration authorities to ensure that the operation of the underground ducts is carried out judiciously, in compliance with the principle of technological neutrality of electronic communications networks, but also that access to the services made available to beneficiaries is not bound to purchasing resources that are not necessary to them.

Categories of projects requiring ANCOM’s approval

The Guidebook also provides information on the categories of projects for which ANCOM approval is required. These include projects in which the construction and operation of underground physical infrastructure for the installation of electronic communications networks is carried out directly by a public administration authority (full public funding – e.g. the projects in Timișoara, Sibiu, Targu-Mureș and Ghiroda).

Furthermore, the Guidebook provides details about projects in which public administration authorities participate together with an economic operator or support the latter’s activity of building and operating underground physical infrastructure for the installation of electronic communications networks (public-private partnership – e.g. the projects in Bucharest or Oradea).

Submitting documentation to ANCOM

For obtaining ANCOM’s approval, the Authority encourages the transmission of the necessary information and documents, as well as any requests for information and clarifications, by e-mail, to the sai@ancom.org.ro and conditii.tehnice.acces@ancom.ro.

Further details about Law no. 159/2016 on the regime of the physical infrastructure of electronic communications networks are available on the ANCOM website section dedicated to this topic, here.